According to the doctrine of Ostpolitik, which so tormented Pope Paul VI, the Vatican engages in friendly "dialogue" with blood-drenched communist dictators in the hoping of gaining concessions; condemnations of communist persecution of the Church are avoided.

        We can see this craven policy at work in the recent papal apology to China, which was quickly followed by the destruction of the last remaining Catholic diocese in the country, where the "official Church" invented by the communists had not taken over.

        Now, according to Reuters, "a court in China's Fujian province has issued an ‘evil cult’ indictment to a Hong Kong businessman for transporting Bibles into China and may hand him a death sentence, a Hong Kong rights group said on Saturday."

        According to Reuters, the Red Chinese indictment says that "Hong Kong trader Li Guangqiang had ‘used an evil cult to damage a law-based society’." Specifically, Li "took 33,000 bibles in two lots into China's Fujian Province to supply an underground Christian group called the Shouter's sect, the group said. He was arrested on his second trip." The "crime" carries a potential death penalty under Chinese "law."

        By the way, what could be more insane than the Red Chinese regime calling itself "a law-based society."

        The Hong Kong rights group mentioned by Reuters has "called on the Hong Kong government to support Li and demand that China specify the definition of ‘evil cult’." Meanwhile, the Red Chinese will not say what they mean by that term, although according to Reuters "the rights group estimated at least 16 Christian organisations had been listed that way."

        Thus far the fruits of the papal apology to China: destruction of the last remaining Catholic diocese; continued persecution of the Catholic Church throughout China; and now death sentences for Protestants who import Bibles.

        When will the Vatican Secretary of State realize that one cannot dialogue with the devil, and that the Jiang regime is diabolical? How in Heaven’s name can Cardinal Sodano believe for a moment that one can reach any real agreement about the divinely-bestowed rights of the Catholic Church with men whose god is Satan?

        As Cardinal Casaroli admitted in an interview before his death, Paul VI was beset by doubts over whether he was betraying the Gospel by listening to Casaroli’s advice in pursuing Ostpolitik. But, as Carasroli admitted, he persuaded Pope Paul to go on with the policy. And today, the Catholics who suffer in China continue to bear the brunt of this human folly.